Problems confront new nation

With the end of the Revolution, the United States had inherited the old unsolved western
question-the problem of "empire"-with its complications of land, fur trade, Indians, settlement,
and government of dependencies. Before the war, several colonies had had extensive and often
overlapping claims to land beyond the Appalachians. The prospect of these states acquiring this
rich territorial prize seemed quite unfair to those without claims in the west. Maryland, the
spokesman of the latter group, introduced a resolution that the western lands be considered
common property to be parceled out by Congress into free and independent governments. This
idea was not received enthusiastically. Nonetheless, in 1780, New York led the way by ceding
her claims to the United States. She was soon followed by the other colonies and, by the end of
the war, it was apparent that Congress would come into possession of all the lands north of the
Ohio River and probably of all west of the Allegheny Mountains. This common possession of
millions of acres was the most tangible evidence of nationality and unity that existed during these
troubled years and gave a certain substance to the idea of national sovereignty. Yet it was at the
same time a problem which pressed for solution.

This solution was achieved under the Articles of Confederation, a formal agreement which had
loosely unified the colonies since 1781. Under the Articles, a system of limited self-government
was applied to the new western lands and satisfactorily bridged the gap between wilderness and
statehood. This system, set forth in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, has since been applied to
all of the continental possessions and. most of the insular possessions of the United States. The
Ordinance of 1787 provided for the organization of the Northwest Territory initially as a single
district, ruled by a governor and judges appointed by Congress. When this territory should
contain five thousand male inhabitants of voting age, it was to be entitled to a legislature of two
chambers, itself electing the lower house. In addition, it could at that time send a nonvoting
delegate to Congress. No more than five nor less than three states were to be formed out of this
territory, and whenever any one of them had sixty thousand free inhabitants, it was to be admitted
to the Union "on an equal footing with the original states in all respects." Six "articles of
compact between the original states and the people and states in the said teritory" guaranteed
civil rights and liberties, encouraged education, and guaranteed that "there shall be neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory."

Thus a new colonial policy based upon the principle of equal- ity was inaugurated. The new
policy repudiated the time- honored doctrine that colonies existed for the benefit of the mother
country and were politically subordinate and socially inferior. This concept was replaced by the
principle that colonies were but' the extension of the nation and were entitled, not as a privilege
but as a right, to all the benefits of equality. The enlightened provisions of the Ordinance laid the
permanent foundations for the American territorial system and colonial policy, and enabled the
United States to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean and to develop from thirteen to fifty
states, with relatively little difficulty.